News & Politics
problem, rather than a partner.”
battle – with cancer.”
According to Ross, “Bush 2” declared war on terror and asked the Israeli government to talk to the Arab governments about the Palestinian problem. By the end of the Bush administration, he had “an emotional attachment to Israel.”
Ross talked about Ronald Reagan’s change of heart and how it has shaped Israel policy for many years. Reagan, he said, suspended weapons to Israel after the bombing of the Osirak reactor in Syria, but then he built security, defense, counter-terror and economic relationships with Israel in 1984, and every U.S. administration has built on that. “Reagan said he had an abiding commitment to Israel,” Ross said. “After the first two years of his presidency, he came back to his roots and had a constituency that backed the idea of helping Israel.”
The Clinton administration was the only one since the founding of Israel that had no negative constituency against Israel. “Clinton said that Israel was the U.S.’s only friend in the world,” said Ross. The Eisenhower administration was the toughest on Israel, according to Ross. Eisenhower thought Truman catered to the Jewish vote for political reasons. People who shaped Cold War policy in those days were anti-Israel, but Truman recognized Israel anyway. Clark Clifford, an advisor in the Truman administration, pointed out that giving in to the Arabs sounded like appeasement and the Arabs needed to sell oil to the U.S. Truman agreed to recognize Israel, but he did little besides that until providing economic assistance to the fledgling country six months later. “When Eisenhower came into office, he thought Truman did a lot for Israel and decided to align with the Arabs,” Ross explained. “He suspended loans to Israel for using the Jordan River water for hydroelectric power and irrigation. Meanwhile, Israel was absorbing a huge amount of people. His secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, told the Arabs that the U.S. was not beholden to the Jews. The British and the French backed Israel against Egypt over the Suez Canal, and the U.S. threatened to get Israel expelled from the U.N. Things changed after Dulles had his own
According to Ross, there are three assumptions that have caused American presidents to make life difficult for Israel. They are: 1) by distancing itself from Israel, the U.S. will gain ground with the Arabs; 2) if the U.S. cooperates with Israel, it will lose ground with the Arabs; and 3) in order to transform the region, we need to deal with the Palestinian issue. There have been what Ross called “egregious examples” in almost every administration.
not stopping any of the problems in the region. “The real priorities of Arab leaders are their security and survival, not Israel,” Ross said. “Now Israel and the Sunni states have common ground, and the Arab countries focus on their own needs. We have to see the region as it is and see Israel as it is. America and Israel share values, interests and threats.” Ross concluded, “The region will struggle with identity, and Israel will stand in complete contrast with the rule of law, segregation of power, an independent judiciary, free elections, artistic freedom, freedom of the press and freedom of speech.”
For instance, Obama created “daylight” between the U.S. and Israel but did not gain with the Arabs. At the beginning of his administration, Nixon tried to reach out to Nasser and suspended weapons to Israel, but Russia helped Egypt and Nasser made new demands. Nixon did, however, provide enormous help to Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Kennedy provided arms to Israel although his secretary of state, Dean Rusk, was against it. Rusk met the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, who raised other issues, and then Kennedy met with him, and he raised other issues as well. Today, the Obama administration’s concern with the Palestinian issue is Kosher oc Magazine // December 2015
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